Saturday, June 01, 2013

Turkey may just want to rethink its ardor for causing more problems for Syria

Authorities in Turkey have arrested almost a 1,000 people across the country in the fiercest anti-government demonstrations the nation has seen for years.

Police withdrew from a main Istanbul square to allow in tens of thousands of protesters, as clashes spread to the capital Ankara and other towns and cities.

Officers removed barricades - some of which had been set alight - in a bid to calm tensions after days of clashes with demonstrators who hurled objects including fireworks at them.

Riot police backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters in Istanbul had for much of Saturday fought running battles with thousands of people who turned out to protect a park in the city's central Taksim Square.

Police, who have been accused of using disproportionate force to quash the demonstrations, attempted to disperse crowds with water cannon and tear gas.

What started as a peaceful environmental protest over plans to redevelop the Gezi Parka has turned into a national demonstration against the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is seen by many as authoritarian.

In a surprise move last week, the government quickly passed legislation curbing the sale and advertising of alcoholic drinks, alarming secularists. Many felt insulted when he defended the legislation by calling people who drink "alcoholics."

Crowds of protesters chanting "shoulder to shoulder against fascism" and "government resign" marched on Taksim Square, littered with broken glass, rocks and an overturned vehicle.

A defiant Mr Erdogan said the redevelopment would go ahead despite the opposition and vowed to bring the unrest under control.

"Police were there yesterday, they'll be on duty today and also tomorrow because Taksim Square cannot be an area where extremists are running wild," he said in televised remarks.

"If this is about holding meetings, if this is a social movement, where they gather 20, I will get up and gather 200,000 people. Where they gather 100,000, I will bring together one million from my party.

"Every four years we hold elections and this nation makes its choice. Those who have a problem with government policies can express their opinions within the framework of law and democracy."

Support rallies have gathered in Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli and Adana and their numbers are increasing.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said 939 arrests had been made in more than 90 separate demonstrations.

As in Istanbul, water cannon and tear gas were also used to stop protesters from reaching the parliament building in the capital, Ankara.

First pictures, then videos of brutal police attacks on unarmed protesters in Istanbul caused the protests to spread to other towns and cities.

Earlier in the week on Thursday morning, riot police were sent to disperse the sleeping protesters camping in the park. Videos of masked police burning down tents and firing tear gas at unarmed people shocked the public.

The protesters rallied once more on Thursday night and the situation got worse on Friday morning.

The police raid was more brutal than the previous day and people who were trying to escape police got crushed under a wall they were trying to climb.

The videos spread quickly through social networks while news channels and mainstream media failed to report on what was starting to become a social resistance movement.

Throughout Friday, protesters tried re-entering the park that had been sealed off by police barricades.

People from all walks of life rallied around this seemingly unimportant protest. University students, actors, journalists, artists, young or old, conservative or liberal, were all united in the movement.

Social media has become the main source of information and people are now afraid the government will shut down the internet.

Twitter has become the eyes and ears of the Gezi movement. Protesters relay crucial information about police barricades, open roads, injury status or emergency situations.

Police closed access to ambulances on Friday and protesters who were injured asked for medical help via Twitter or Facebook.

A group of medical students and doctors volunteered and their names and numbers were quickly broadcast on Twitter, urging protesters to call them if anyone was seriously injured.

Lawyers have volunteered their services to those who have been arrested.

When police started using jammers to stop communication in Taksim, shops, cafes and businesses shared their wifi passwords on Twitter to help everyone share their pictures and videos.

The UK Foreign Office called for restraint and urged the government not to use tear gas "indiscriminately".

"We encourage the Turkish authorities to respect the right to peaceful protest and freedom of assembly, which are fundamental human rights in any democratic society," a spokesman said in a statement.

121 comments:

This reminds me of Egypt because of the spontaneity, scale, and almost immediate calls, not for elections, but the complete removal of the executive leadership. The smartest and safest thing to do would be to have new elections if there are no constitutional demands... but that leaves the door open for the inevitable cries of vote-rigging and voter manipulation if there is no change of leadership.

The remains of dozens of Palestinians killed by Israelis in fighting during the war of 1948 which led to the creation of the state of Israel have been found in a mass grave in Tel Aviv's Jaffa district.

An official at the Muslim cemetery there told AFP news agency that the grisly find occurred on Wednesday when ground subsided as workers carried out renovations, revealing six chambers full of skeletons.

Jaffa fisherman Atar Zeinab, 80, says that as a teenager during the final months of fighting in 1948, he helped to collect the Arab dead in the area south of Jaffa and bring them for hasty burial in the cemetery, the area's main graveyard.

"I carried to the cemetery 60 bodies during a period of three or four months," he told AFP. "We used to find the people in the street and most of the time we didn't know who they were."

He said that the danger of being hit by flying bullets or grenade fragments was such that bodies were dumped one on top of the other in existing family crypts in the cemetery, contrary to Muslim custom.

"We carried them early in the morning or in the night," he added. "We put women, children and men in the same place...nobody prayed for these people."

Jaffa was at the time a Palestinian town, but there was a forced exodus of most of its Arab population when it fell to the fledgling Israeli army and rightwing Jewish armed gangs.

In 1950 it was incorporated into the city of Tel Aviv which was renamed Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

Today it has a mixed Arab and Jewish population.

Around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what they call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of 1948.

After watching the video, I opened up a couple of other videos that popped up at the end. In one, John Kerry was denouncing the Russian sale of S300's to Syria. He indicated the sale was a threat to Israel and that it was destabilizing for the region.

My first thought was that, hey, this guy has great looking hair for a man his age. My second was that he is a flaming hypocrite.

See the attached chart from the Economist. $1.7 trillion was spend on arms last year and the U.S. took the biggest chunk. The U.S. just announced an arms deal where the will be sending advanced missiles, F-16's, Ospreys, new tanker aircraft and other advanced equipment to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel.

Take a look at the chart. Saudi Arabia, one of the key players in the Syrian war is the 6th largest purchaser of arms in the world (9% of GDP). They are just short of Japan and France. They exceed India or Germany. They are equivalent to Canada and Australia combined.

Q, when the US sells weapons, when the Israeli, French, Germans, Swedes, Italians sell weapons, it is a stabilizing event in the region the sale is made. If the Russians, Chinese, NorKs sell weapons, it is destabilizing to the whirled peace, tranquility and General Dynamics..

This is jut plain as the nose on boobie's face, what the call in ID, common sense.

NO, Mr. Thoughtless General Bunk. These Russian, Chinese, and Nork sales are good for General Dynamics. They all require a response. This causes the stock to rise, which leads to tranquility of GD and its stockholders.

The lack of logic argues for Floppy Foot, the spite for impacted bowels, folks.

Every sale made by the Russians or Chinese, even the NorKs is a sale General Dynamics missed.

The Indians, Malaysians, Indonesians, are all in the market, buying from all sellers. Sales ar not driven by ideology, but by competitive bid. When the Pakistani buy a Russian submarine, that is one less hull that General Dynamics Electric Boat builds.

The Malaysians, Indians, UAE and the like, are not weaponry ideologues, dimwit.

You really are dumber than rock, still back in the mid 20th century, your knowledge base and thought process quit growing, you are stuck in 1970's.

Bonobo on branch Bonobos have bendy feet to help them grip branches Continue reading the main story Related StoriesTeam reconstructs 'human ancestor' Human origins story takes new turn 'New human-like species' revealed

Scientists have discovered that about one in thirteen people have flexible ape-like feet.

A team studied the feet of 398 visitors to the Boston Museum of Science.

The results show differences in foot bone structure similar to those seen in fossils of a member of the human lineage from two million years ago......

.....Floppy foot

Most of us have very rigid feet, helpful for stability, with stiff ligaments holding the bones in the foot together.

When primates lift their heels off the ground, however, they have a floppy foot with nothing holding their bones together.

This is known as a midtarsal break and is similar to what the Boston team identified in some of their participants.

This makes the middle part of the foot bend more easily as the subject pushes off to propel themselves on to their next step.

Dr DeSilva told BBC News how we might be able to observe whether we have this flexibility: "The best way to see this is if you're walking on the beach and leaving footprints, the middle portion of your footprint would have a big ridge that might show your foot is actually folding in that area."<<

>>>Timbuktu, Mali — Her light-skinned master no longer beats her with a camel whip. He no longer makes her work from dawn to night without pay. He fled with his family four months ago, along with the Islamists who briefly ruled this historic city.

“I am free,” said Aminaya Traore, a 50-year-old woman who was born into slavery. “I can do whatever I want.”

Gallery

Mali, in black and white: Long before turmoil escalated in Mali last year, the country experienced a different kind of dramatic change in the years leading up to and right after the end of French colonial rule.

After jihadists fled, Timbuktu’s slaves taste freedom

Sudarsan Raghavan

The rule of the jihadists shined a spotlight on Northern Mali’s modern-day slavery.

Across this sand-swept city, hundreds of modern-day slaves are experiencing a sense of liberation, many for the first time. Nearly all the lighter-skinned Tuaregs and Arab Moors who for generations exploited them have fled the city, fearing reprisal attacks for supporting a separatist rebellion that helped ignite the Islamist takeover of Mali’s north last year.

“Under the Islamists, blacks were exploited even more by the pink-skinned people,” said Roukiatou Cisse, a social worker with Temedt, a human rights group, referring to the Tuaregs and Arab Moors.

Even so, the rebels' bloodthirsty tactics and links to Islamic extremism are a long way from the democratic Middle Eastern ideal that our Foreign Secretary claims to be promoting. The truth, I fear, is that Mr Hague - presumably in thrall to his officials - has gone native.

Like so many foreign secretaries before him, he has fallen victim to the temptations of his office. The disease is a common one, and we have seen it before. The new man arrives at the Foreign Office promising to trim our international obligations, to steer clear of foreign entanglements and to put Britain first. But as he climbs the gilded staircase towards the foreign secretary's splendidly ornate office, the delusions of grandeur begin to sink in. And by the time he is installed behind the heavy wooden desk, it is too late...

Who wants to be visiting an A&E department when you could be strolling round Africa with Angelina Jolie, campaigning to raise awareness of warzone rape?

Yet global activism can be dangerously addictive. We learned that painful lesson during the Blair years: having intervened in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the Prime Minister could not stop himself from getting involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, too.

And for a politician anxious to look tough and frustrated by the hard slog of domestic reform, foreign intervention becomes a drug. Libya? Certainly. Syria? Why not?

The tragedy, of course, is that politicians never pay the price for their diplomatic arrogance. In Iraq and Afghanistan, as at Suez in 1956, the price was paid by ordinary British soldiers, many of whom had no idea what they were doing there...

Since his speech, the usual suspects in the GOP have been blasting Obama's rhetorical shift on the WOT.

This is easy to understand.

Later that year, a computer disk was found in Lafayette Park across from the White House containing a PowerPoint presentation written by Rove, stressing the war on terror as a campaign issue and directing Republican candidates to “focus on war.”

That sums up the story of the Republican Party's key strategy during the Bush years: Run on the war. Even after Obama won the presidency in 2008, groups like Keep America Safe were created to continue to drive home this message. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the sharp reaction to Obama’s shift away from a “global war” framing has more to do with fear of the loss of advantageous rhetorical ground than it does with any genuine, substantive difference in threat analysis.

There’s no doubt that al-Qaeda, in its various permutations, as well as the broader phenomenon of violent Islamic terrorism remains a threat (though not one remotely on the scale of past threats like the Soviets or Nazis, despite persistent effort to represent it as such) to Americans and our allies. But there should also be no doubt that treating the threat as a vast, civilizational struggle requiring large-scale military interventions and occupations was a disastrous approach, one that played into al-Qaeda's strategy of draining the United States of resources while elevating its own status. From a policy perspective, it’s simply staggering that conservative hawks should want to keep at it. From a political perspective, it makes some sense...

Yesterday, the Kremlin pledged to send a heavy aircraft carrier, “Admiral Kuznetsov”, to the Mediterranean.

In November Russia sent six warships from its Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean in response to the Israel-Gaza conflict. The U.S. also began making moves to increase the American military presence in the east Mediterranean.

In May a detachment from Russia’s Pacific Fleet entered the Mediterranean waters for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

“The Russian Defense Ministry started setting up a special force of warships in the Mediterranean in order to protect Russia’s interests in the region," Syria's state-run news agency reported last month, citing a spokesman for Russia defense ministry.

The Washington Post blames the US government for failing to act on any of its “red lines” and leaving a power vacuum in the region. The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat says the vacuum will not only allow Iran to increase its presence in Syria, it will lead to Iranian hegemony across the region.

Haaretz wonders whether this will lead to a power struggle with Israel as new arms shipments from Russia could provide the Syrian regime with the means to challenge Israeli air superiority.

This is truly fascinating. Read carefully and look whose name pops up, and remember the guy the US tried in vain to kill in Iraq, Moqtada Al-Sadr:

London/Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—The ongoing battle for Al-Qusayr, a strategically important Syrian town close to the Lebanese border, continues to rage on, with Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters flooding the area to try and win back the town from Assad regime forces.

Lebanese Hezbollah and the Syrian Republican Guard sent military reinforcements to Qusayr earlier this month in an attempt to recapture the last remaining rebel strongholds in the central Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

A key military source on the ground informed Asharq Al-Awsat that approximately 1,700 rebel fighters, mostly affiliated to Aleppo’s rebel Al-Tawhid Brigade, have arrived in Qusayr to fight against both the regime’s forces and Hezbollah.

The source, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, said that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has “fielded tens of thousands of fighters from the suburbs of Homs, Aleppo, Idlib and Deir Ezzor” in an attempt to “rescue” the city from the regime forces.

He added, “The battle will be decisive, given Qusayr’s strategic location,” noting that the FSA possesses “strong combat capabilities in terms of fighters and weapons.”

The interim president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), George Sabra, also confirmed on Friday that opposition fighters are flooding into Qusayr, which had been under rebel control for months before the Assad regime moved to retake the town two weeks ago.

“More than 1,000 FSA fighters from all over Syria are now joining the resistance inside Qusayr to defend against the foreign terrorist invaders, who are infiltrating our country from Lebanon and other places,” Sabra said in a reference to Hezbollah.

In an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, embattled Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad had said that he was confident of victory.

“There is a world war being waged against Syria and the policy of (anti-Israeli) resistance…(but) we are very confident of victory,” he said.

However the battle for Qusayr, and the key part being played by Hezbollah in this, has also intensified tensions between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and rest of the region, including regional allies such as Iraq’s Sadrist movement.

A senior member of the Sadrist Movement, refused to reveal details of the recent dispute that has erupted between Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Moqtada Al-Sadr, saying: “Moqtada Al-Sadr formulates his positions based on Iraqi and Arab principles, and he sides with Arab peoples’ freedom and their right to self-determination.”

The Sadrist leader, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, said: “I do not know if it is a dispute or a difference of opinion between the two leaders…. disagreement is normal and does not necessary mean hatred.”

However a Baghdad official confirmed that deep divisions have erupted between the two Shi’ite leaders over Nasrallah’s continuing support for the Assad regime.

The Iraqi official told Asharq AL-Awsat: “Sadr believes that it is wrong for Shi’ites to become embroiled in the Syrian crisis by supporting Assad against the Syrian people…This will incite hatred of Shi’ites who have historically suffered from oppression and injustice in Iraq.”

Taking advantage of Iraq's instability and the rapidly decreasing faith in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Moqtada al-Sadr is working to transform his image and raise himself in Iraqis' eyes as a political and spiritual leader.

Contradicting his history of violent sectarianism, the Shiite cleric is trying to present himself as the uniter of all Iraqis at a time of civil strife, and as the defender of Iraqi rights.

When fighting and protests erupted in recent months in Sunni al-Anbar province, he called on all Iraqis to live peacefully with each other – extending the pleas beyond just Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish Iraqis, to also include Christians and Jews, to whom he pleaded in a video, asking Jews to “come back and help rebuild their homeland.”

Last year, Sadr began to approach Iraq's poorest citizens, making efforts to feed and take care of them, and called on all Iraqis to do the same. But many see this tactic as the most direct way to recruit them and gain their loyalty.

He also aims to present himself as a Hawza leader, going so far as to undermine its most senior ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani. Hawza, a group led by Iranian and Iraqi ayatollahs and steeped in Iraqi history, has long been the picture of uniting Iraqis and standing up to unfair rule – as far back as its formation as a resistance to British rule in 1922. However, although it presents itself as a group of men doing God's duty, it is also run by very wealthy and influential leaders, and his position as an important ayatollah in it would serve to further his own ambitions.

These strategies are politically directed, but not for Sadr himself. He wants to have his party, the Sadr list, which already boasts five ministers and 40 MPs, well represented in parliament – and possibly the prime minister's seat – after this spring's elections. He is exempt from political office himself, as he is a religious leader, but he can still have a great deal of influence on Iraqi politics with his list dominating parliamentary seats.

He is also said to be using the absence of the US in Iraq to his benefit – not only that the US military has physically withdrawn, but that its leaders also seem to have waning interest in the country and its political future.

Kerry is running around with his very coiffed hair on fire calling out the Russians for sending additional arms to Syria. Kerry says Russia’s delivery of S-300 missiles to Syria will hamper efforts at planned peace talks in Geneva and put Israel at risk.

"It is not helpful to have the S-300 transferred to the region while we are trying to organize this peace [conference] and create peace," Kerry said at a joint news conference with his German counterpart in Washington on Friday.

"We ask them again not to upset the balance within the region with respect to Israel," he said. "The weaponry that is being provided Assad whether it is an old contract or not, has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region and it does put Israel at risk."

Kerry is as usual, making a fool of himself and subordinating US policy to be all about Israel, all the time. How is his diplomatic buffoonery being rewarded by the US’s most important, eternal ally and minder? Read on:

Snubbing Kerry, Israel to Build 300 Units in East Jerusalem

By: Jewish Press News BriefsPublished: May 31st, 2013

Israel’s Housing Ministry announced on Thursday that it has given final final approval to a plan to construct 300 new homes in Jewish East Jerusalem.

This will not be pleasant news to Secretary of State John Kerry, whose efforts to renew Mideast peace talks appear to rely on Jewish homelessness.

The announcement came less than a week after Kerry all but commanded Israel not to engage in any “provocative” actions during his visit to the region.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said building the new homes was “counterproductive.”

Palestinian officials accused Israel of undermining the U.S. effort to restart the negotiations.

Last time, in late 2008, negotiations broke down over PM Netanyahu’s refusal to extend a 10-month freeze on construction of Jewish homes in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.

Could an attack on the S-300s be reason for Gog-Russia to attack Israel?

I personally believe so.

Attacking Russia's S-300s will drawn Israel into the Gog Magog war. Warnings have been given. The bible says The Lord will put a hook in the jaw of Gog and will draw them against Israel. Iran, Russia's ally, and others, have also threatened to retaliate.

As gas prices continue to rise, the ethanol industry is taking a bold step to ensure consumers save at the pump. While E10 and E15 are saving drivings money with each gallon, now flex fuel drivers who use E85 can save even more money. Siouxland Energy and Livestock Cooperative (SELC), a 60 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Sioux Center, Iowa, is now offering E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, directly to retailers and is passing in the RIN value generated by blending ethanol directly to them. The hope, the retailer then passes their saving on to consumers.

According to OPIS, recent prices for E85 at Iowa terminals were about $2.69 per gallon, while SELC listed the price for their E85 at only $2.17 per gallon. Last week, Absolute Energy of St. Ansgar, Iowa announced the implementation of the same . . . . .

Hitler carried DNA markers that are commonly carried in people of Jewish descent.

The question, as it relates to Hitler, whom quot admires, is whether he had enough Jewish blood to be considered Jewish.

Usually the standing one has in a religious organization is based upon belief, not upon bloodlines.Bloodlines are family, clan, even tribal. But not religious.

Israel calls its portion of Palestine a 'Jewish' homeland. Many Russians have immigrated to Israel, but ... and here is the rub ...are not allowed to be interned in Jewish cemeteries, or permit marriage licenses and such.Seems these Russians are not 'Jewish' enough.

Jewish enough to immigrate, Jewish enough to be soldiers in the IDF, but not Jewish enough to be buried in holy ground.

So, the question, raised by Hitler's DNA, is just how pure does the blood have to be, to really be Jewish.

This Gen Bunker fellow sure a broken record, same stuff over and over, all bullshit.

How about that Sammy Davis Jr.

>>Overview

According to Maimonides (Isurei Biah 13:15), in the days of Kings David and Solomon, Batei Dinim (Jewish courts) did not accept converts.[13]

Nowadays, with the notable exception of some Syrian Jewish communities, (primarily the Brooklyn, NY and Deal, NJ communities),[14] all mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts,[15] with all denominations accepting converts converted by their denominations. The rules vary between denominations.

For Rabbinic Judaism, the laws governing conversion (gerut) are based on codes of law and texts, including discussions in the Talmud, through the Shulkhan Arukh and subsequent interpretations. (Many of the guidelines of accepting converts are based on the Book of Ruth and the manner whereby Ruth was brought into the fold through her mother-in-law, Naomi).[13] These rules are held as authoritative by Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism.[citation needed] Jewish law is generally interpreted as discouraging proselytizing, and religious gerut is also discouraged. In the past, Rabbis often rejected potential converts three times, and if they remained adamant in their desire to convert, they would then allow them to begin the process.[4] This practice has been justified on several grounds, including:The laws Jews require of themselves are more stringent than they consider to be required of other nations; a person who would be considered derelict of religious duties under Jewish law could easily be, without change in action, an exceedingly righteous gentile.[citation needed]Jews have suffered regular and often severe persecution throughout the ages; a proselyte is exposing himself to potentially mortal danger.In the Book of Ruth, Naomi tried to get Ruth to go back to her own people three times before Ruth became a part of the Hebrew people.

However, a rabbi convinced of the prospective convert's sincerity may allow him or her to follow the process of conversion. This requires the person to appear before an established three-judge Jewish religious court known as a beth din ("religious court") to be tested and formally accepted. A person who formally converts to Judaism under the auspices of a halakhically constituted and recognized beth din consisting preferably of three learned rabbis acting as dayanim ("judges"), but also possibly two learned and respected lay members of the community along with a rabbi, is issued with a Shtar geirut ("Certificate of Conversion").[16]

Conservative Judaism takes a more lenient approach in application of the halakhic rules than Modern Orthodox Judaism. Its approach to the validity of conversions is based on whether the conversion procedure followed rabbinic norms, rather than the reliability of those performing it or the nature of the obligations the convert undertook.[citation needed] Accordingly, it may accept the validity of some Reform and Reconstructionist conversions, but only if they include immersion in a ritual bath (mikvah), appearance before a rabbinical court (beit din) and, for men, circumcision (brit milah) or a symbolic circumcision for those already circumcised (hatafat dam brit).[citation needed]

The requirements of Reform Judaism for conversions are different. The denomination states that "people considering conversion are expected to study Jewish theology, rituals, history, culture and customs, and to begin incorporating Jewish practices into their lives. The length and format of the course of study will vary from rabbi to rabbi and community to community, though most now require a course in basic Judaism and individual study with a rabbi, as well as attendance at services and participation in home practice and synagogue life."

Although an infant conversion might be accepted in some circumstances (such as in the case of adopted children or children whose parents convert), children who convert would typically be asked if they want to remain Jewish after reaching religious adulthood – which is 12 years of age for a girl and 13 for a boy. This standard is applied by Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, which accept halakha as binding.[17][18]

Karaite Judaism does not accept Rabbinic Judaism and has different requirements for conversion. Traditionally non-proselytizing, Karaite Judaism's long standing abstention from conversions was recently lifted. On 1 August 2007, the Karaites reportedly converted their first new members in 500 years. At a ceremony in their Northern California synagogue, ten adults and four minors swore fealty to Judaism after completing a year of study. This conversion comes 15 years after the Karaite Council of Sages reversed its centuries-old ban on accepting converts.[19...

...While in Community Hospital, in San Bernardino, Davis' friend, performer Eddie Cantor, told him about the similarities between the Jewish and black cultures. Prompted by this conversation, Davis—who was born to a Catholic mother and Protestant father—began studying the history of Jews. He formally converted to Judaism several years later, in 1961.[4][29] One passage from his readings (from the book A History of The Jews by Abram L. Sachar), describing the endurance of the Jewish people, intrigued him in particular: "The Jews would not die. Three millennia of prophetic teaching had given them an unwavering spirit of resignation and had created in them a will to live which no disaster could crush".[30] <<

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took a shot at fellow Republican Senator John McCain‘s controversial trip to Syria, in which the elder legislator posed for a photo with men who may have been involved in the kidnapping of eleven Lebanese Shiites. (McCain’s office denies the alleged identity of the men.)

“I’m very worried about getting involved in a new war in Syria,” Paul said at the Reagan Library on Friday. “People say ‘Assad is such a bad guy.’ He is. But on the other side we have al-Qaida and now Nusra. They say there are some pro-Western people and we’re going to vet them. Well, apparently we’ve got a Senator over there who got his picture taken with some kidnappers, so I don’t know how good a job we’re going to do vetting those who are going to get the arms.”

Will McCain even understand the criticism? Or will he still miss the point, again?

When criticisms started pouring in about the picture, rather than get the point everyone was making, i.e. that it proves that the warmongering McCain hasn't a clue as to who he was meeting with much less who the 'good guys' are in Syria, he took the criticsm to be primarily about taking a picture with known terrorists and kidnappers.

In defense of McCain over this PR disaster, McCain's spokeperson stated, "Obviously, Senator McCain in no way supports kidnapping".

The man, and likely his staff, are completely clueless. Warmongering and photo-ops, that's all the onld guy has left to try to make himself relevant.

Absolute intellectual rubbish and Israeli propaganda. The US military and intelligence service watched the following countries become nuclear powers and assisted some of them:

RussiaGreat BritainFranceChinaIsraelIndiaPakistanmaybe N. Korea

The US has been able control the nuclear proliferation. There was never a trade off worthy of a unilateral US attack on any of those countries. All the propaganda coming from AIPAC, Israel and the amen chorus in the US Congress about the Iranian threat is the big lie. Has Iran attacked civilian ships in international waters? No, Israel has. Has Iran conducted preemptive wars against Middle Eastern countries? No, the US has. Has Iran sent its air force out to attack its neighbor? No, Israel has.

If Israel wants to attack Iran, let them do it with their own resources and suffer the inevitable consequences for doing so. Cynically, they know that it could result in US involvement. No country has a greater demonstrable need for a nuclear deterrent than Iran. The US and Israel have provided that incentive to the Iranians in spades.

Israel's regional nuclear monopoly, which has proved remarkably durable for the past four decades, has long fueled instability in the Middle East. In no other region of the world does a lone, unchecked nuclear state exist. It is Israel's nuclear arsenal, not Iran's desire for one, that has contributed most to the current crisis. Power, after all, begs to be balanced. What is surprising about the Israeli case is that it has taken so long for a potential balancer to emerge.

Of course, it is easy to understand why Israel wants to remain the sole nuclear power in the region and why it is willing to use force to secure that status. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq to prevent a challenge to its nuclear monopoly. It did the same to Syria in 2007 and is now considering similar action against Iran. But the very acts that have allowed Israel to maintain its nuclear edge in the short term have prolonged an imbalance that is unsustainable in the long term. Israel's proven ability to strike potential nuclear rivals with impunity has inevitably made its enemies anxious to develop the means to prevent Israel from doing so again. In this way, the current tensions are best viewed not as the early stages of a relatively recent Iranian nuclear crisis but rather as the final stages of a decades-long Middle East nuclear crisis that will end only when a balance of military power is restored.

…Most important, policymakers and citizens in the Arab world, Europe, Israel, and the United States should take comfort from the fact that history has shown that where nuclear capabilities emerge, so, too, does stability. When it comes to nuclear weapons, now as ever, more may be better.

The Mail on Sunday has published one of the most intriguing of splashes. On a day when the news agenda has been dominated by cash-for-questions newspaper stings (in The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times), the Mail's story has tended to pass under the radar.

But the mysterious tale, headlined "No 10 rocked by secret love affair", appears to have the potential to add to the prime minister's problems. It began:

"David Cameron has held crisis talks at Downing Street after being told of allegations of a sensational love affair which has potentially significant political implications for him.

For legal reasons, the Mail on Sunday cannot disclose the identities of the people involved or any details of the relationship – even its duration – other than that they are middle-aged figures. The affair has now concluded.

But this newspaper can report that when aides told Mr Cameron the identities of the alleged lovers he was 'stunned', and, according to sources, 'immediately realised the importance of the story'."

The story goes on to quote a "senior source" as saying: "This revelation is dynamite. None of us could believe it when we first heard it" and adding that it had caused "great personal distress to innocent parties".

A later sentence states:

"If the affair is revealed, it is likely to cause as much public surprise as the disclosure of the relationship between John Major and Edwina Currie, which was kept secret for nearly two decades until 2002."

Of course, it could be nothing more than journalistic hype, but I somehow doubt that. It's not in the nature of the MoS editor, Geordie Greig.

So what's it all about? What "legal reasons" prevent us from knowing more? Is there an injunction in place, an anonymised injunction possibly?

I have asked and, as yet, no answers. I would guess that the MoS's lawyers have advised those in the know to say no more.<<<

quot then projected the adventures of a Mossad agent, Michael "Mike" Harari , in Noriega's entourage onto me.It was Harari who reorganized, renamed and trained the Panamanian Defense Forces when Noriega succeeded Torrijos. Harari also instructed Noriega's personal bodyguard and his "Special Anti-Terror Unit." Harari obtained advanced technical equipment and weapons for them, and there is no doubt he taught them how to anticipate and neutralize many of the attempts to monitor Noriega's activities launched by American intelligence officers from their bases in the Canal Zone.

"O"riginal once asked for my 'proof' I'd even been in Central America, I told him to get the list of folks who had, from Colonel North, and I'd tell him if I was on it.

From that he builds an entire scenario.But one which he cannot reference, in time or space.

That it was his desire to rename this blog to celebrate his revelation about Hitler, whom quot now believes was right. He further regaled us of his new found knowledge that his father had been wrong, all along.

These revelations, he told us, he gained from his participation, here at ".The Libertarian".

He does not deny that.He claims that there was a context to his writing that made it acceptable.

This being utterly bizarre, since there has nary been a mention of Hitler in anything but a disparaging manner, excepting quot's proclamation, two days after the Patriot Day bombing, in Boston.

So, while America mourned its dead, quot was speaking of Hitler being right.It seems quot had a revelation, how Lebensraum was right for both Germany and Israel.

>>"It is a policy of containment, non-intervention at all costs," said the first State Department official. "Short of sarin gas being lobbed at Tel Aviv, we are not going to intervene."<<

Kerry's Syrian Quagmire

As the secretary of state tries to get the rebels and the regime to the negotiating table, a State Department official says it would take "sarin gas being lobbed at Tel Aviv" for Washington to take military action.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.